Gambling onset and progression in a sample of at-risk gamblers from the general population

• Autor(a) principal: Carneiro, Elizabeth
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Tavares, Hermano, Sanches, Marcos, Pinsky, Ilana [UNIFESP], Caetano, Raul, Zaleski, Marcos, Laranjeira, Ronaldo [UNIFESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNIFESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2014.01.035; http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/37786
• topic: Pathological gambling; Gambling trajectory; Community sample; Gambling sub-population

The goal of this study was to investigate gambling-related behavior, onset and progression in a sample of at-risk gamblers from the community. A national household survey was conducted in Brazil, covering individuals 14 years old or older. Subjects were screened for at-risk gambling, those testing positive answered a questionnaire about gambling progression, preferred games and DSM-IV pathological gambling criteria. Out of 3007 respondents, 118 were considered at-risk gamblers according to the Lie/Bet Questionnaire. According to the DSM-IV, 32.7% and 24.9% of those were considered problem and pathological gamblers, respectively. Early at-risk gamblers (onset prior to 20 years of age), were more likely to be male, to prefer non-commercially structured games, and to chase losses while gambling. Young pathological gamblers (under 35 years of age) progressed faster from regular to problem gambling (roughly 2 years) than mature pathological gamblers (12 years). Such findings had not been described before because previous reports focused mostly on clinical samples that lack young, male, early-onset gamblers. Gambling programs have not satisfactorily covered this segment of gamblers. Outreach strategies and early interventions should be provided to prevent these individuals from rapidly evolving into pathological gambling. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.